An Unauthorised Fan Treatise
Feb. 13th, 2023 07:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrAn Unauthorised Fan Treatise is a murder mystery by YA author Lauren James, written as a fictional blog by a RPF shipper digging up details of her favourite actors' lives to prove they're dating.
It's very cleverly written and captures the vibe of these kinds of fandom blogs and dramas perfectly. Something about it rubbed me the wrong way as a story, maybe the typical-of-murder-mysteries way issues of race/gender/sexuality mostly exist as fodder for drama and dramatic irony. Also I feel like the final reveals it was working towards could have been more interesting(*), but while I don't think it quite mined the full dramatic and humourous potential of the premise I'm still impressed by the way it holds together. The drily humourous unreliable narrator aspect is well done, capturing the exact experience of reading some fannish manifesto and trying to decide how much of it is real.
I skipped all the in-universe fan-fiction though, I'm sure the author had fun writing it but it didn't feel like it added to the story.
(*)But maybe I just find mundane murder mysteries boring. I'd love see a Dracula/Lovecraft etc-ish epistolory fantasy-horror story told in this format, with the dark humour and dramatic irony intact.
It's very cleverly written and captures the vibe of these kinds of fandom blogs and dramas perfectly. Something about it rubbed me the wrong way as a story, maybe the typical-of-murder-mysteries way issues of race/gender/sexuality mostly exist as fodder for drama and dramatic irony. Also I feel like the final reveals it was working towards could have been more interesting(*), but while I don't think it quite mined the full dramatic and humourous potential of the premise I'm still impressed by the way it holds together. The drily humourous unreliable narrator aspect is well done, capturing the exact experience of reading some fannish manifesto and trying to decide how much of it is real.
I skipped all the in-universe fan-fiction though, I'm sure the author had fun writing it but it didn't feel like it added to the story.
(*)But maybe I just find mundane murder mysteries boring. I'd love see a Dracula/Lovecraft etc-ish epistolory fantasy-horror story told in this format, with the dark humour and dramatic irony intact.
